Friday, July 23, 2010

An Entertaining Mystery With Some Interesting Surprises

Review of The Last Track:

Mike Brody is a skilled tracker with an extra sense to help the process. He is not just dedicated to tracking but he is driven. You learn the details of his motivation near the end of the story. I liked Mike as a well developed character.  Even though he is strong and inclined to do things his way, it is more because he knows what he is doing and not because he is arrogant. He doesn't panic but logically works through the problems. He doesn’t accept help easily but he can accept it.

Mike’s ex-wife Jessica seems almost as driven in her journalism career so it is interesting that she resents Mike’s dedication. It does seem that they both tend to put their careers before their family which is a little sad for their 8 year old son, Andy. This story takes place while they are vacationing and they don't get in much time together. Jessica is able to use lots of  contacts to help the investigation move along.

I enjoyed the details on Mike’s tracking techniques and survival tips. This added extra interest to the story which has plenty of intrigue and suspicious characters. It seems everyone is hiding something so it is hard to tell who can be trusted. The known villain, Crotty, is a pretty nasty piece of work.  The difficult task though is to try to figure out who “The Partner” in crime is.

I liked how breaks were set up in time sequences rather than chapters. This helped the reading to move at a good clip. This is an easy read that and the language is appropriate to work well for teens and all ages up. Mystery buffs will especially appreciate the detailed tracking and the unexpected surprises.

*excerpt from Martha's Bookshelf. To read more, or enter the book giveaway - win a signed copy of The Last Track - go to: http://marthasbookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-last-track-by-sam-hilliard.html

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